Deuteronomy 21:12

“Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, etc.] In order to make her his wife, after some things were done here directed to; for this is not to be understood of his taking her home with a view to defile her, as Maimonides f277 interprets it; who observes, that when a man’s lust so rages that he cannot subdue it, yet he ought not publicly to satisfy his lust, but to have the woman into a private and secret place, as it is said, thou shalt bring her into the midst of thine house; nor was he permitted to lie with her in the camp, nor was it lawful for him to defile her a second time, until her mourning was at an end; though elsewhere f278 he gives a different sense of this passage, and…”

“The shaving the head (a customary sign of purification, Leviticus 14:8; Numbers 8:7), and the putting away “the garment of her captivity,” were designed to signify the translation of the woman from the state of a pagan and a slave to that of a wife among the covenant-people. Consistency required that she should “pare” (dress, compare 2 Samuel 19:24), not “suffer to grow,” her nails; and thus, so far as possible, lay aside everything belonging to her condition as an alien. return to 'Top of Page'”

“She shall shave her head - In token of her renouncing her heathenish idolatry and superstition, and of her becoming a new woman, and embracing the true religion. Deuteronomy 21:13”

“21:12 To shave her head and cut her nails demonstrated a captive woman’s separation from her home and family. She was cutting off the past to join a new family and community.”

“and she shall: This was in token of renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East. when a Christian turns Mohammedan, his head is shaved, and he is carried through the city, crying, la eelah eela allah wemochammed resoolu7)llahee, "There is no God but the God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." Co1 11:6; Eph 4:22 pare her nails: or, suffer to grow, Heb. make, or dress, Weâsethah eth tzipparneyha, "and she shall make her nails;" i.e., probably neither paring nor letting them grow, but dressing or beautifying them as the Eastern women still do by tinging them with the leaves of an odoriferous plant called alhenna, which Hasselquist…”

“When the woman was taken home to the house of the man who had loved her, she was to shave her head, and make, i.e., cut, her nails (cf. Sa2 19:25), \- both customary signs of purification (on this signification of the cutting of the hair, see Lev 14:8 and Num 8:7), \- as symbols of her passing out of the state of a slave, and of her reception into the fellowship of the covenant nation. This is perfectly obvious in her laying aside her prisoner's clothes. After putting off the signs of captivity, she was to sit (dwell) in the house, and bewail her father and mother for a month, i.e., console herself for her separation from her parents, whom she had lost, that she might be able to forget her…”